Improvement in devices for locking drawers



L. neuken.

Devices for Lecking Drawers.

- SrA'rEs PATENT OrrrcE LOUIS RENKER, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 141,461, dated August 5, 1873; application filed May 19, 1873.

To all lwhom fit may concern:

Beit known that I, LoUrs RENKER, of Hoboken, in the State of N ew Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Furniture, ot' which the following is a specification:

rlhe nature ot my invention consists in an.

arrangement of rods or levers provided with suitable projections, operated by one drawer only in a desk, bureau, or chest of drawers, in such a manner that, by openingthisone drawer, all other drawers in said piece ot' furniture shall be unlocked and capable of being opened, while when this one drawer is closed and locked all other drawers shall be locked after the same have been pushed into their places.

1n the accompanying drawing, Figure I represents partly an outside View and partly a section of a writing desk or table containing my improvement. Fig. II is a longitudinal section of the same.

A represents a writ-ing table or desk arranged with a number of drawers, B and B. In the frame-work of the table rods O G are arranged, capable of being moved or ot' sliding clear of the drawers.

Instead of two rods, one continued rod may be. used, the reason of making two rods, as here represented, being on account ot' the top ofthe table being made separate and capable ot being removed from the side-pieces.

On the rod O a projection, E, is made, tting into a recess on the bottom of the drawer B. This projection E is rounded o' or beveled in both directions, (see dotted lines, Fig. 11,) so that the drawer B, either when the same is pulled out or when being pushed inward, will slide easily upon its inclined surface, and thereby compress or push down the same and at the same time the rod O, and, being situated directly above the rod C', push said rod C downward at the same time. On the side next to the drawers B projections D are made on the rods O and C', which t tightly into corresponding recesses made in the bottom of these drawers B when said drawers B are closed. These projections D are made with fla-t surfaces on the inner or after sides, and tapered downward toward the front. (See Fig. II.) By this arrangement the drawers will be kept perfectly fast and be prevented from being pulled outward, except when these projections D are moved clear of the corresponding recesses in the bottom of the drawers. Below the rod O' a spring, m, is arranged in the frame ot' the table to force and keep the projections D in the correspondingrecesses in the drawers, and a similar spring, n, is arranged in the framing in the upper part of the table to support and hold up the rod O.

When the drawers B and B are all pushed inward or closed and the drawerB is locked, all the other drawers will be securely locked, as the projections D will then be in their corresponding recesses in the' bottom of the drawers, and are kept there by the action of the springs u and my. When the drawer B is unlocked andv partially drawn out the straight part ot' its bottom will, by coming upon the projection E, press the same and, consequently, the rods O and C', downward, moving thereby the projecp tions D out of the recesses in the bottom of the drawers B', when all the other drawers B can be opened or pulled outward.

The arrangement of the rods O and O varies, of course, with the construction and arrangement ofthe drawers in the piece of furniture; and it will readily be understood that it' another chest of drawers should be arranged upon thewriting-table here represented, a

suitable rod with projections can be arranged, operating the upper additional drawers by being connected with and operated by the rod O What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The slide-rods O O', provided with the caniprojection E,.lockprojections D D, and springs m n, in combination with a lock-drawer, B, and notched drawers B B', to be fastened thereby, arranged and operating substantially as and for the purpose herein specilied.

Witnesses: LOUIS BENKER.

HENRY E. RoEDEa, C. THoRNToN. 

